Talent Code: Greatness Isn't Born. It's Grown. Here's How. (09 Edition)

What is the secret of talent? How do we unlock it? In this groundbreaking work, journalist and New York Times bestselling author Daniel Coyle provides parents, teachers, coaches, businesspeople—and everyone else—with tools they can use to maximize potential in themselves and others.

Whether youre coaching soccer or teaching a child to play the piano, writing a novel or trying to improve your golf swing, this revolutionary book shows you how to grow talent by tapping into a newly discovered brain mechanism.

Drawing on cutting-edge neurology and firsthand research gathered on journeys to nine of the worlds talent hotbeds—from the baseball fields of the Caribbean to a classical-music academy in upstate New York—Coyle identifies the three key elements that will allow you to develop your gifts and optimize your performance in sports, art, music, math, or just about anything.

• Deep Practice Everyone knows that practice is a key to success. What everyone doesnt know is that specific kinds of practice can increase skill up to ten times faster than conventional practice.

• Ignition We all need a little motivation to get started. But what separates truly high achievers from the rest of the pack? A higher level of commitment—call it passion—born out of our deepest unconscious desires and triggered by certain primal cues. Understanding how these signals work can help you ignite passion and catalyze skill development.

• Master Coaching What are the secrets of the worlds most effective teachers, trainers, and coaches? Discover the four virtues that enable these “talent whisperers” to fuel passion, inspire deep practice, and bring out the best in their students.

These three elements work together within your brain to form myelin, a microscopic neural substance that adds vast amounts of speed and accuracy to your movements and thoughts. Scientists have discovered that myelin might just be the holy grail: the foundation of all forms of greatness, from Michelangelos to Michael Jordans. The good news about myelin is that it isnt fixed at birth; to the contrary, it grows, and like anything that grows, it can be cultivated and nourished.

Combining revelatory analysis with illuminating examples of regular people who have achieved greatness, this book will not only change the way you think about talent, but equip you to reach your own highest potential.

Albert Einstein, Pele, Charlotte Bronte, and Michelangelo: How did they all get to be such dazzling geniuses? Where did their greatness come from? The answer lies within their brains, in myelin, a neural substance that turns out to be the holy grail of acquiring skill. Those who have mastered their craft have lots of myelin. And you can too. You just have to learn how to grow it.

In this revolutionary book, New York Times bestselling journalist Daniel Coyle takes you on an illuminating journey across the globe to nine of the world's most prolific hotbeds of talent to reveal the key to unlocking human potential. From the baseball fields of the Caribbean to a classical music academy in upstate New York, Coyle is on the search for the clues that will answer some of the most intriguing questions about talent:

Why is one impoverished Russian tennis club able to put out more Top 20 women players than the entire U.S.?

How did all three Bronte sisters become literary all-stars?

How does a group of inner-city charter schools manage to send 80 percent of its students to college?

What enables a humble music school in a mall in Texas produce a string of pop stars--including Jessica Simpson?

The secret to acquiring skill, Coyle discovers, comes down to three elements: the right kinds of practice, coaching, and motivation. When these three elements converge and you learn how to operate at the edge of your abilities, you activate the neurological mechanism that promotes the growth of myelin, the microscopic nerve-fiber insulator that adds speed and accuracy to your movements and thoughts. Combining vivid examples with deft analysis, this book will not only change the way you view talent, but enable you to reach your own fullest potential.

Daniel Coyle is the author of the New York Times bestseller Lance Armstrongs War and Hardball: A Season in the Projects, and is a contributing editor for Outside magazine. He lives with his wife and four children in Homer, Alaska, where he coaches a rapidly improving Little League team.